Nursing students travel to Peru, Belize to provide care to families in need

By SARA R. SALDI

“With the new winter session course opportunities, our graduate and undergraduate students are able to participate in wonderful service learning experiences that offer them exposure to clinical practice in different cultures.”

Dean Marsha Lewis, School of Nursing

While many college students look forward to the winter break as
a time to spend skiing or swimming with friends and family, UB
nursing students travelled to Central and South America to provide
health care to families in need. And the undergraduates got
college credit for it.

During the first UBThisWinter 2014 — which offered
credit-bearing courses on campus, online or overseas —
nursing students enrolled in study abroad courses to immerse
themselves in cultural/clinical experiences beyond the
classroom.

Marsha Lewis, dean of the School of Nursing, says the new winter
session provided an opportunity for nursing students that
hadn’t been available before.

“In order to meet the strict criteria for state
certification and licensure upon graduation, nursing students must
complete a prescribed number of semester hours in class and in
clinical rotations,” Lewis explains. “This means that
to graduate on time, students have little time during a semester to
participate in clinical field experiences outside of the
curriculum.

“With the new winter session course opportunities, our
graduate and undergraduate students are able to participate in
wonderful service learning experiences that offer them exposure to
clinical practice in different cultures.”

In January, two nursing faculty members took two groups of
students to Belize and Peru. Joann Sands, clinical assistant
professor who specializes in disaster and emergency preparedness,
accompanied seven students to Belize. Dianne Loomis, clinical
associate professor who specializes in primary care and refugee
care, accompanied five students to Peru.

Sands, who two years ago travelled with a contingent of UB
nursing students to help victims of Hurricane Sandy, says UB
Nursing worked with the university’s Study Abroad program, as
well as International Service Learning (ISL) to arrange visits to
villages and health clinics in Belize.

“We were in Belize for nine days,” says Sands.
“We held a health clinic in San Lazaro and also a clinic in
San Jose. At the end of the week, we presented a health
education/health fair day in the village of Carmelita. The students
also had an opportunity to shadow and observe some of the nurses at
the hospital in Orange Walk.”

Loomis collaborated with SUNY Brockport’s Study Abroad
program, which was first developed by Brockport nursing professor
Constance Lawrence, to send 18 UB and Brockport students to Peru.
Loomis’ group worked with Sacred Valley Health — a
relationship formed by Lawrence — to promote health in the
underserved rural communities of Peru’s Sacred Valley.

“We went to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley Region for
our health care initiatives,” says Loomis. “Sacred
Valley Health set our goals, which were to assist the community
health workers (promotoras de salud) in teaching community members
about best health practices and first aid. Participants also
received physical exams and fluoride treatments.”

Sands and Loomis say that while they knew the conditions for
nursing practice would be different from what the students
encountered in the U.S., there were surprises.

“For instance,” says Sands, “In Belize, the
hospital had no pharmacy so nurses there are responsible for mixing
medications and IV fluids themselves. There is no sterile
processing department so the nurses prepare their own sterile
equipment. In the U.S., we take for granted our access to vitamins
but they are extremely expensive in Belize.”

Loomis adds that in Peru, “the lack of such resources as
ophthalmology and dental care” posed barriers to optimal
heath. “Also, the limited hand-washing opportunities with
clean water were a challenge.”

Members of the UB contingent relied on their strong clinical and
physical assessment skills because access to diagnostic testing,
like EKG machines, CT scanners, blood tests and X-rays, was
limited.

“All of the diagnoses were made solely on interviews and
physical assessments,” says Sands. “We use technology
every day in the United States, from the electronic medical record,
to reference material online or even the everyday testing we do. So
it was very difficult to proceed with little to no
technology.”

Belize was chosen in part, says Sands, because it is primarily
English speaking. But in Peru, Spanish and Quechua were the
languages spoken.

The Peru group relied on interpreters — employees of
Sacred Valley Health and other students — who were proficient
in Spanish and Quechua. All students participated in Spanish
classes.

“Immersion into the culture and language assists students
to better understand the experience of limited language
proficiency, which occurs in Buffalo when caring for our refugee
and Spanish-speaking populations,” says Loomis.

Sands says the living conditions were shocking, with most
families living in very small homes or shacks that had concrete or
dirt floors, with anywhere from six to 12 people living in one
small home.

Both instructors were moved by the individuals in both countries
who were generally in good spirits.

“Everyone we saw in Belize was so happy and
patient,” says Sands. “Many people would wait hours in
hopes of seeing a doctor. They would wait for health care for four
to five hours, and if we couldn’t get to them, they would say
‘It’s OK, we will try again tomorrow,’ and not be
upset!”

Sands’ group of seven students saw 85 patients during its
stay; Loomis’ group of 18 — five from UB, 13 from
Brockport — saw approximately 150 to 200 patients.

Loomis says the most rewarding part of the trip for her was
listening to the students during end-of-day debriefing sessions
discuss what they had learned and how they had been affected by
their experiences, both professionally and personally.

Sands says this kind of trip is invaluable because the students
are immersed in the cultural reality of the patients they are
caring for. She called it “cultural humility” —
engaging and interacting with people, rather than reading
descriptions about them in a book.

“The nursing school will continue to offer these
opportunities to students,” Lewis says.

“In President Tripathi’s State of the University
Address, he said that part of our focus should be ‘engaging
even more effectively with our communities, locally as well as
globally.’ I am so proud of our faculty and students as they
provide health care to those in need here, as well as beyond our
borders.”

READER COMMENT

I am a nurse, working in the high desert for 10 years. I am from Peru. I wanted to let you know the wonderful program that you offer to your students. I would love to know if the opportunity to traveling is only for your students or can other nurses participate as well.

Dina Miller

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